Abolish prisons and the electoral college as reparations, says public university professor

A professor at Washington State University (WSU) has demanded the abolition of prisons, the Electoral College, and implementation of universal healthcare as reparations for America’s “history of racist violence."

Prof. David Leonard of the Pullman campus of WSU recently made these demands in an op-ed published in the Huffington Post.

Professor David Leonard at Washington State University is demanding the abolition of prisons and the electoral college as reparations for America’s “history of racist violence.”

These demands are justified, “given the history of racist violence, evident in slavery, Native American genocide, Jim Crow, forced sterilization, racist immigration laws, the conquest of Southwest and other crimes against humanity, I think reparations are in order,” he wrote.

In his column Leonard also skewered “white denial about racism" saying it was "instrumental in the perpetuation of violence, inequality, and privilege.”

He argued that “solutions are a-plenty” from “dramatically changing the tax code and increasing minimum wage” to “prison abolition” and/or even adopting a “single-payer national health system.”

Leonard also listed the abolition of the Electoral College, passing of the Dream Act, and dramatically changing the tax code, as solutions that “would take us on a path toward… racial reconciliation.”

A spokesperson for WSU, David Watkins, told Campus Reform on Wednesday that the school welcomes such views from their faculty.

“We find that those that are the most extreme… these commentaries tend to foster debate and conversations among students,” said Watkins. “It is a byproduct of what we live with.”

Watkins added that “the idea that creating or opening up dialogue about radical ideas is not new to higher education and it really is… the tenets of what makes an institution great.”

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